Meet our Leaders
Our leadership team is responsible for organizing knowledge-sharing around gender diversity and inclusion issues among AIB members, as well as facilitating professional development for women educators in the IB field.
Below, you’ll find background details on each of our team members, our leadership roles and responsibilities, and contact information to help you connect with us online.
For information on WAIB’s previous leaders, please visit our Past Executive Boards page.
Noemi Sinkovics
WAIB President
United Kingdom
WAIB President
The WAIB President oversees all Shared Interest Group functions, including member outreach, event coordination, and financial management.
Noemi Sinkovics
Noemi Sinkovics (PhD, RFSA, FHEA) is Associate Dean Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability and Professor of Sustainable and Responsible Business at Newcastle University, United Kingdom. She is Visiting Professor at University of Vaasa in Finland (InnoLab). Her research focuses on how businesses can balance their social, environmental, and economic objectives. She explores this question through various frameworks, including global value chains, the business-responsibility matrix, business model innovation, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Noemi is Senior Associate Editor for European Management Journal, Associate Editor for Critical Perspectives on International Business and serves on several editorial review boards. Noemi has served on several AIB Chapter boards and is currently the Chair of the AIB UK and Ireland Chapter.
Yingying Zhang Zhang
Vice-President
Vice-President
The Vice-President assists the President with responsibilities designated by the President, and partners with other Executive Board members on their duties and tasks as needed. The Vice-President is also responsible for managing WAIB awards (e.g. Woman of the Year, Emerging Scholar) including their eligibility requirements, nomination processes, and implementation.
Yingying Zhang Zhang
Yingying Zhang Zhang is Professor of Management and Research Director at the International University of Japan (IUJ), where she bridges academic excellence with real-world impact. Recognised as an AACSB 2024 Influential Leader, she presented her expertise on social impact generation at AACSB’s prestigious ICAM opening session. With a career spanning entrepreneurship, multinational corporations, and SMEs, she uniquely combines scholarly rigour with practical strategic insights. Her global academic engagements include visiting positions at Harvard, Northeastern, and Göttingen University, while her leadership as Secretary General of the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM) demonstrates her commitment to advancing management scholarship worldwide. An accomplished researcher, she has been honoured with the Emerald Research Excellence Award and serves on the editorial boards of leading academic journals.
Irina Surdu-Nardella
Academic Research Officer
Academic Research Officer
Irina Surdu-Nardella
Irina Surdu-Nardella is a Professor of International Business & Strategy at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick (UK). Professor Surdu’s main research interests lie in the study of international growth and the subsequent investment strategies of multinational enterprises. This includes the investment, exit, and re-entry strategies of global firms. More recently, Irina’s research has examined the organizational outcomes of corporate social irresponsibility in different international markets.
Irina has won multiple awards for her research, including best paper awards at the Academy of Management, Academy of International Business UK-I, British Academy of Management and European International Business Academy. Professor Surdu’s research has also appeared in leading journals, such as: Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, British Journal of Management, International Business Review, Journal of International Management, California Management Review, amongst others.
Professor Surdu is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Multinational Business Review and an Editorial Board Member of Journal of International Business Studies, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of World Business, and International Business Review.
Her role within WBS extends to Programme Director of MSc Marketing & Strategy (MSMS) and Research Environment Lead for the SIB (Strategy & International Business) group.
Erica Piros Kovacs
Events-Membership Officer
Events-Membership Officer
WAIB’s Events-Membership Officer is responsible for mentoring program assistance, membership promotion, and events coordination.
Erica Piros Kovacs
Erica Piros Kovacs is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, USA. Her areas of expertise are cross-cultural management, IB consulting, study abroad programs, IB education and pedagogy, and South America.
Communications Officer
The Communications Officer is responsible for managing WAIB’s email listserv, promoting and maintaining WAIB’s social media presence, maintaining the official SIG website, and supporting the group’s various initiatives, as needed.
Swati Nagar
Swati Nagar (PhD, Auckland University of Technology) is a Senior Lecturer (Education – Focused – Discipline of International Business) at the University of Sydney Business School. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, she was employed at the AUT Business School, where she served as the Head of Department at the Department of International Business, Strategy & Entrepreneurship, AUT Business School, New Zealand. Over her 20-year career, she has developed a philosophy that centres on collaboration, inclusivity and openness. This is reflected in her ability to engage, establish, and manage relationships (internal and external) with a range of stakeholders within the University and Industry. As a scholarly practitioner, she champions new and innovative methods, specifically concerning Teaching and Learning Pedagogy and Industry-focused research. Her current research interests include the Social Impact of Modern Slavery, Sustainable Production and Consumption in the FMCG Industry, and Pedagogical research that explores teaching and learning best practices in a post-COVID education environment. She serves as the Communication Co-ordinator for the AIB Teaching and Learning SIG and is the VP. Secretary for AIB Oceania. She has published in several outlets, including Routledge, AIB Insights, Cambridge University Press, Palgrave and the Journal of International Business Education.
Heidy Montero-Teran
Student Member at-Large
Student Member at-Large
Heidy Montero-Teran
Heidy Montero-Teran holds the position of doctoral researcher at LUT University, Business School. In her dissertation, “Towards Environmental Upgrading: Managing the Decarbonization of Global Value Chains of Multinational Companies,” she investigates strategies to reduce the carbon emissions of business activities and to promote operational sustainability within the context of planetary boundaries. Her research interests encompass decarbonization, global value chains, sufficiency, and virtue ethics.
June Lee
Components Officer
Components Officer
The Components Officer coordinates with AIB Chapters and AIB SIGs around the world to support AIB women scholars and promote WAIB activities. The Components Officer encourages WAIB members to develop and host WAIB-sponsored activities at AIB regional conferences and works with the Academic Research Officer to encourage WAIB members to take leadership roles in advancing gender research in IB.
June Y. Lee
June Y. Lee is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco, where she also serves as Entrepreneurship & Innovation Major Lead. Her research explores entrepreneurship, innovation, and international business, with a particular focus on how firms in emerging economies develop new business models, adapt to shifting institutional environments, and leverage innovation for growth. In addition to her research, Professor Lee is deeply committed to teaching and mentoring her students, the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders. She designs and leads highly interactive courses on entrepreneurship, strategy, and emerging technologies, where students gain hands-on experience with startup ideation, digital tools, business model design, and innovation strategy. Her teaching emphasizes experiential learning, encouraging students to build and launch projects that bridge theory and practice. She also actively mentors student entrepreneurs, advises campus organizations, and connects students with industry networks across Silicon Valley and beyond. Professor Lee earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University.
Elizabeth Rose
Components Officer
Components Officer
The Components Officer coordinates with AIB Chapters and AIB SIGs around the world to support AIB women scholars and promote WAIB activities. The Components Officer encourages WAIB members to develop and host WAIB-sponsored activities at AIB regional conferences and works with the Academic Research Officer to encourage WAIB members to take leadership roles in advancing gender research in IB.
Elizabeth Rose
Elizabeth L. Rose is Research Chair Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Indian Institute of Management Udaipur. Her previous academic appointments have been in the U.K., New Zealand, Finland, and the U.S.
Beth’s research addresses various aspects of how firms internationalize and compete across borders; she works at the intersection of international business and strategy. She has ongoing interests in the internationalization activities of smaller firms, especially those operating in emerging and developing markets. Beth’s work has appeared in a variety of top-tier journals, including Journal of International Business Studies.
Beth has held leadership roles in several academic professional organizations. She served as an AIB Vice President for Administration, where she worked closely with AIB chapter chairs from around the globe. She was the founding chair of the AIB’s Australia and New Zealand Chapter (now AIB-Oceania), and is a past President of both the Australia and New Zealand International Business Academy (ANZIBA) and the Association of Japanese Business Studies (AJBS). Beth is an active member of the AIB-Africa Chapter taskforce. She has been Chair of the Strategic Management Society’s Global Strategy Interest Group and served a five-year term on the Executive Committee of Academy of Management’s International Management Division. In addition to serving on the editorial team of Journal of International Business Studies, Beth is a founding co-editor of Academy of Management Collections and co-editor of Review of International Business and Strategy.
Rimi Zakaria
Secretary-Treasurer
Secretary-Treasurer
The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for keeping the minutes of WAIB Executive Committee and Annual Business Meetings, the distribution of any written materials intended for circulation among the WAIB membership, the active solicitation of funds from relevant institutions to support WAIB activities, and managing WAIB account balances, including the general operating funds and the Helping Hands scholarship funds, as well as providing an annual report of finances to members of the Executive Board.
Rimi Zakaria
Rimi Zakaria, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Management at the College of Business and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. As an international student turned immigrant to the US (and a global citizen), Rimi’s commitment to the discipline of IB has been an organic growth, given her exposure to diverse cultures, mindsets, and lifestyles. She is passionate about educating her students through experiential, technology-forward, and feedback-driven approaches. Her research is cross-disciplinary and is particularly situated at the crossroads of international business (IB), strategy, and sustainability.
Rimi’s service commitments include diversity- and pedagogy-based projects (e.g., diversity/inclusion of underrepresented students; compensation equity for faculty; mentoring, advising, recruitment, retention, and belonging of female/Black/Hispanic students/scholars; writing teaching cases). Before joining the WAIB board as the Treasurer, she served the Academy of Management (AOM) International Management (IM) Division in various capacities, including on the Teaching, Communications, and Doctoral Student committees.